La Liga: Villarreal 2 – 0 Atlético

Atlético misses out on a spot in the top four, thanks in part to appalling officiating

Menaced all evening long by Villarreal torpedoes Rossi, Nilmar and Cazorla and by the incompetent officiating of Ramírez Domínguez, Atlético was defeated 0-2 at the Madrigal.

Los Rojiblancos will lament missing the golden opportunity that fell into their laps last night when Valencia unexpectedly fell to Mallorca at the Mestalla.

Atlético had the chance of entering the coveted top four spots if they could only manage to snatch a victory away from their direct rivals tonight. Instead, Atleti stumbled all the way down to eighth place with the loss.

Coming into tonight’s match, the big question was whether Quique would go with Diego Forlán up top alongside Kun, or if he would bench the Uruguayan in favor of the on-fire Diego Costa. Quique banked on the Brazilian but the gamble unfortunately did not pay off this time.

Costa had scored in each of our last three Liga fixtures and in four out of our last five matches in all competitions. Forlán meanwhile, arrived in Villarreal mired in his longest scoring drought since the 2005/06 campaign when he was a member of the Yellow Submarine.

Quique also bet on Raúl García who started in place of the more offensive-minded Tiago. The decision suggested Quique was a bit alarmed about Villarreal’s potent attack and felt the back-line needed the extra support, and oh boy did they!

The first half began and ended in controversial fashion. Before the first minute elapsed, Kun took on the Villarreal defence and slotted one through to Simao, who couldn’t control the ball as he tumbled to the ground after being taken down by Bruno in what could’ve easily been called a penalty by referee Ramírez Domínguez.

Atleti quickly had another chance to go up early in the 3rd minute when Costa threaded a pass in to Kun who finished cleanly though was immediately ruled offside by just a whisker.

Our fast start was all for naught as moments later Cani opened up the score-sheet. Nilmar had charged up the field a good number of yards going unchallenged before slicing a pass that split Godín and Perea and found his team-mate on the other side who hit it through De Gea and into the goal.

Atleti had two chances in quick succession in the 22nd and 23rd minutes to level the score, but failed to capitalise on either.

Reyes cut a pass in to Costa who swung and missed and Marchena cleared the ball out of the penalty box avoiding danger.

Right after, La Perla put in another pass, this time to Ujfalusi who made a quick cut before firing well wide of the far post.

As the match proceeded we continued to push forward, trying to find a way into Diego López’s net. Both sides did little to threaten until just moments before the half time whistle blew.

Nilmar streaked past Perea on two occasions showing off his blazing speed, absolutely toasting the Colombian who turned in his second consecutive poor performance.

Fortunately for us, Nilmar squandered both opportunities to double-up his side’s lead, first erring on a lateral pass to Rossi and later being blocked by Perea who recovered just in time to save the Brazilian’s shot.

Ramírez Domínguez then left us all writhing in bitter anger after blinding himself to an illicit challenge on Kun that unquestionably should have been a penalty.

Atleti had a late corner kick that was received by Godín, who ripped a shot saved by Diego López. Kun was there for the rebound and was taking the ball on the line to set himself up for another shot but was tackled by Gonzalo in clearly illegal fashion.

Ramírez Domínguez blew his whistle immediately, and to the disbelief and outrage of Atléticos everywhere, the referee signaled the end of the half ignoring the actions right before his eyes.

The referee was subsequently surrounded by the righteously indignant entire Atlético squad, who demanded justice for the ridiculously blown call. Ramírez Domínguez wielded out his own form of justice, expelling Quique and showing Reyes a yellow card for his protests.

The second half never really took off for Atleti, who were obviously dejected by the calls against them.

In the 52nd minute, Rossi received a pass from Cani and danced around Ujfalusi and Godín before blasting a low near side shot past a diving De Gea to put the Yellows up 2-0.

Forlán and Tiago were brought on minutes later in an attempt to ignite our attack, as we desperately needed a goal to get back in the game.

The referee’s ineptitude continued when in the 62nd minute he failed to see Joan Capdevila trip up Kun in the box preventing our starlet from volleying a pass to the goal.

Our Argentine striker threw his arms up in despair and smiled ironically, wondering what it would take to get the referee to award us a penalty kick.

The pace of the final half hour slowed down appreciably as the Submarine controlled possession cruising along to victory.

Los Colchoneros disappointingly showed no real sense of urgency being down by two, and a crestfallen Quique could do nothing but count the seconds off his watch from the stands.

Juan Carlos Garrido’s men move back up past Barcelona on the Liga table and are now in second place, just a point behind league leaders Real Madrid. Atleti sinks to eighth, its lowest position of the young campaign.

Our men will regroup and travel to Gran Canaria this week to kick off our Copa del Rey campaign against Universidad de las Palmas on Wednesday.

While Valencia, Sevilla and Villarreal were all away, it worries me that we’ve taken just one point from these games, which doesn’t help our head to head record against these clubs either.

I think Villarreal did deserve to win today, they were superior in possession and their passing game is amazing, but I do feel bitter knowing that this game would have been completely different had the referee made the correct decisions.

I.A.

Very good Villareal, Bad Atleti, Worst referee, in a false competition. It makes me remember the 70´s an 80´s

k14

makes me remember 2010 world cup ….

javi

I.A., I dont think atleti was bad, in fact even with the referee missed calls I thought we could pull this one off, especially when Tiago and Forlan came in. But it appears that the emotional setback of the blown calls and cards prevented the team to play like they did in the first half. Now we are hoping teams in front of us make mistakes so that we can climb back into the European standings…were are used to this. Aupa Atleti.

I.A.

Really i agree with you at all. Javi, i mean that atleti, maybe i should say Quique, should have put a better squad on the pitch. I don´t understand the confidence on Raul Garcia instead Tiago, and why we can´t see Mérida before a desaster of injuries or always only a few minutes, or out of his natural spot. But i specially heate the confidence on Raul Garcia on a match like this.This is a very important site on the field and we have a very experienced player with u, that, perhaps, sometimes he isn´t enough brillant but always plays with sense of responsability (as Assunçao does) and plenty of quality.

Javi

I think Raul Garcia was in there because Quique was a fraid of the fast attcks by Rossi and Nilmar. But in doing that we had a gap bringign the ball from the defense to the ofense and that was not cured until Tiago came in. He really makes a difference because he goes back get the ball and starts the playmaking to the front. As soon as he was in you could see more feeds to the forwards. I would have kept Diego Costa in with Kun and Forlan and I would have taken Simao out instead. We needed to score at least two and we had 20 minutes or so, so just throw all the offense we had in plus Simao didnt have one of his best games. But its always easy to make these moves from our seat rather than Quique’s seat.

k14

what really upset me with atleti performance was the first goal,
u will see 2 villareal players at Ufo and perea side, but none on the other, yet neither godin nor fillipe tackled nilmar.

but i also need to admit that fillipe is surprisingly good at defending, never saw anyone get past him in all games, or maybe i wasnt paying enough attention ;p

k14

btw,
most keep mentioning 3 missed penalties.
I only saw 2, did i miss something in the first 5mins ?

Derek Maaijen

Within the first minute Simão was clear on goal after a pass by Diego Costa, but he didn’t control it very well and was then pushed over by Bruno. Out of the three calls that was probably the weakest, but the ref could’ve given it.